Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Monday urged the Election Commission of India to remove free symbols resembling the car which is the party’s election symbol.
According to reports, the TRS feels that similar symbols shared between political parties could hurt its chances in the upcoming by-elections in Munugode. The ruling party has hence requested the ECI to remove eight free symbols including camera, soap dish, television, sewing machine, ship, road roller, doli, and chapati roller from its free list since they resemble the car.
In case the ECI fails to respond within 48 hours, the TRS has would approach the court. Earlier, ahead of the Huzurabad By-elections, the TRS had successfully persuaded the ECI to remove a few free symbols. In his letter to the ECI, TRS general secretary Bharat Kumar Soma said, “Taking advantage of free symbols identical to car available with the EC, opposition parties may use so-called Independent candidates to cut our votes.”
The party also expressed dismay over the road roller symbol appearing on the free list, despite being banned by the ECI in 2011. “To our surprise, we found that the road roller is still available as a free symbol. We had brought this to the notice of EC earlier too. The EC should look into this,” the TRS leader said.
The ruling party had also raised the issue regarding free symbols in 2018, when independent candidates who used the road roller, camera and television secured more votes than the nationally recognised parties.
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